Systems and methods for controlling permissions to change parental control settings based on vocal characteristics of a user

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for controlling permissions to change parental control settings based on vocal characteristics of a user. In some aspects, the media guidance application may receive a voice command from a user to update a parental control setting. The media guidance application may determine both what the requested change is and an age (or age range) of the user is who is attempting to change the parental control setting based on vocal characteristics of the voice command. If the media guidance application determines that an age range associated with the user exceeds an age associated with the requested change to the parental control setting, the media guidance application may update the parental control setting at a media device based on the requested change. Accordingly, the media guidance application may allow only users of appropriate ages to change parental control settings at the media device.

BACKGROUND

Conversational systems have become increasingly common in householdsaround the globe. With the increased prevalence of these systems, usershave become increasingly dependent on the conversational systems.However, with the increased prevalence of these devices, children arebecoming more adept at using, and abusing, these systems. For example,children may know how to activate a conversational system and inputcommands to change settings put in place by their parents. For example,while the parent is away, the child may ask the system to unblockR-rated movies on their television, a block that was input by theirparents. While some conversational systems will only respond to certainusers registered with the system, it can be cumbersome to users orparents to have to input, for each user in the house, which settingsthose users are, or may not be, allowed to change.

Ultimately, this may frustrate parents who use these conversationalsystems, as their child may gain access to programming that is notappropriate for the child because the parent forgot to change thechild's permissions.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein for controllingpermissions to change parental control settings based on vocalcharacteristics of a user. These systems and methods may be implementedby a media guidance application (e.g., executed by user equipmentassociated with the user). In some aspects, the media guidanceapplication may receive a voice command from a user to update a parentalcontrol setting. The media guidance application may determine both whatthe requested change is and an age (or age range) of the user who isattempting to change the parental control setting based on vocalcharacteristics of the voice command. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that an age range associated with the user exceeds the ageassociated with the requested change to the parental control setting,the media guidance application may update the parental control settingat a media device based on the requested change. In this way, the mediaguidance application may allow only users of appropriate ages to changeparental control settings at the media device without a user having toindicate which users are allowed to change what settings.

For example, a user may utter a command (e.g., “Unblock R-rated movies”)to a voice-based input device. The media guidance application mayreceive the audio input of the utterance and parse the audio into aplurality of words, which may be compared to a command database todetermine that the audio input includes a parental control instruction(e.g., “Unblock” and “R-rated” may be found in the command database).The media guidance application may determine an age range correspondingto the user in the audio input based on vocal characteristics (e.g.,average word length, mean fundamental frequency, or speaking rate) ofthe user. If the age range corresponding to the user exceeds the ageassociated with the parental control instruction (e.g., unblockingR-rated programs may be associated with an age of 18), the parentalcontrol setting is updated at the device based on the parental controlinstruction (e.g., R-rated programs will be unblocked).

The media guidance application may receive, from a voice-based inputdevice, an audio input of an utterance of a user, for example, the usersaying “Unblock PG-13 programs,” and parse the audio input into aplurality of words (e.g., “Unblock,” “PG-13,” and “programs”). The mediaguidance application may compare some of the parsed words (e.g.,“Unblock” and “PG-13”) to a command database to determine whether theycorrespond to an entry in the command database, indicating that theaudio input of the utterance of the user was an instruction regardingparental controls. If the media guidance application determines that thewords correspond to the entry, the media guidance application may accessthe entry to determine the parental control instruction (e.g., “UnblockPG-13-rated media content) including a parental control level(“PG-13-rated”).

The media guidance application may further process the audio input todetermine vocal characteristics of the user, such as his or her speakingrate, mean fundamental frequency, and average word duration. Thesecharacteristics may be indicative of the age of the user. The mediaguidance application may compare the vocal characteristics to a voicedatabase that aids the media guidance application in determining the agerange of the user. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user is between 16 and 20 years old based on thecomparison. The voice database may be populated by sampling the vocalcharacteristics of a plurality of users who input their age into theirmedia guidance applications, and then, using those samples, determineaverage signatures for each vocal characteristic and age pair. In thisway, when the vocal characteristics of the user are compared to thevocal characteristics in the voice database, they can be compared to theaverage signatures to find the closest signature, and thus determine theage of the user.

Furthermore, each vocal characteristic and age pair may have a weightassociated with them, which may indicate how deterministic the vocalcharacteristic is of the age or age range (which may be associated witha deviation of the voice samples from the average signature or someother regression technique). The media guidance application may sum theweights for all vocal characteristics that correlate to a specific agerange, and then determine which age range has the greatest sum. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the age rangeof 16 to 20 years old may have a sum of 1.5 whereas the age range of sixto 12 years old may only have a sum of 0.2. The age range of 16 to 20years old may be used as the age range for the user because it has thegreater sum. However, if the sums for multiple age ranges exceed athreshold, that is, if the sum for six to 12 years old had been 1.3 or1.4 and the threshold was 1.2, the media guidance application maydetermine that there is too much uncertainty in the age of the user, andthus determine that the age range should be the null set, which meansthat the user should not be authorized to make any updates to theparental control settings on the media device as their age could not bedetermined. In the alternative, the age range may be set to 0, such thatthe user may be allowed to make certain updates that don't require aminimum age.

The media guidance application may determine what the current parentalcontrol level at the media device is. The media guidance application maycompare an age range corresponding to the user (e.g., 16 to 20 yearsold) to an age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. For example, any update related to the PG-13-ratingparental control level may be associated with an age of 13. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine that the ageof 13 is associated with the PG-13-rating based on a table associatingparental control instructions with a plurality of ages and comparing theparental control level (e.g., PG-13-ratings) to the table. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may additionally determine aparental control update command (e.g., “Unblock”) included in the audioinput as part of determining the parental control instruction, and mayfurther compare the parental control update command to the table. Forexample, unblocking PG-13-rated content may be associated with an age of13, but blocking PG-13-rated content may be associated with a lower age,such as five years old. Furthermore, the media guidance application mayalso compare the parental control level on the media device with therequested parental control level. For example, if the user is requestingto unblock PG-13-rated content, but R-rated movies are alreadyunblocked, then the media guidance application may allow the update tooccur regardless of the age range of the user.

The media guidance application may update the parental control settingat the media device from the parental control level (e.g., allowingPG-rated (or less) media content) at the media device to the firstparental control level (e.g., allowing PG-13-rated (or less) mediacontent) if the age range exceeds the age associated with updating theparental control level at the media device based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. However, if the age range does not exceed the age,then the media guidance application may maintain the parental controllevel (e.g., allowing PG-rated (or less) media content) at the mediadevice and not update the parental control level. In either case, anauthorized user (such as the parent) may respond to a notification thatthe parental control level at the media device will beupdated/maintained. For example, the media guidance application maynotify the user that the parental control level will be updated fromPG-rating to PG-13 rating and the authorized user may say, “No, don't!”Based on determining that this command negates the previous command, themedia guidance application may revert the parental control setting tothe original parental control level at the media device. Similarly, ifthe media guidance application notifies the authorized user that theparental control setting of PG-rating is to be maintained, theauthorized user may say “It's ok!” Based on determining that thiscommand affirms the previous command, the media guidance application mayupdate the parental control setting to PG-13-rating.

Finally, the media guidance application may receive a subsequent commandand treat this command differently if the command is changing the sameparental control setting of a particular type (e.g., a type may beupdating ratings or updating how much the user is allowed to spend onpurchased programming). For example, if the user, who may have an agerange of 12-16, had requested to block R-rated programming, which may beassociated with an age of 10, the media guidance application may updatethe parental control setting. That same user, or a user associated withan age range of 16-17, may later request to unblock R-rated programming,which may be associated with an age of 18. Normally, neither user may beable to unblock R-rated programming. However, based on determining thatthe second request (to unblock R-rated programming) is of the same typeas the first request (to block R-rated programming) and that the userissuing the second request is the same age or older than the user whoissued the first request, the media guidance application may allow thisupdate to occur.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may receive, from avoice-based input device, an audio input of an utterance of a user. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive, over acommunication link from the voice-based input device, an audio input ofthe user saying “Unblock PG-rated movies.” In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may, based on receiving the audio input,parse the audio input into a first plurality of words. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may run a natural languageunderstanding subprocess locally to convert the audio clip into a stringof words. In other embodiments, the media guidance application maytransmit the audio input to a server or other dedicated processor toparse the audio input.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare a firstsubset of the first plurality of words to a command database todetermine that the first subset of the first plurality of wordscorresponds to a command entry in the command database. For example, themedia guidance application may retrieve a data structure or tablecomprising a plurality of parental control update commands and aplurality of parental control levels. For example, the plurality ofparental control update commands may be “Unblock,” “Block,” “Allow,”“Prevent,” “Unblock for [time period],” and “Block for [time period].”The plurality of parental control levels may be “G,” “PG,” “PG-13,” “R,”“Violence,” “Language,” “Sexual content,” “Nudity,” “Purchasing,”“Purchasing+[monetary value]” “TV-G,” “TV-PG,” “TV-14,” “TV-MA,” “E,”“E-10-Plus,” “T,” and “M.” The media guidance application may determinethat “PG” (a first subset) relates to the same parental control level inthe command database. The media guidance application may thereforedetermine that the audio input comprises a parental control instruction.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also compare asecond subset of the first plurality of words to the command database todetermine a first parental control update command. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that “Unblock” corresponds tothe same parental control update command in the command database asdescribed above.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, based ondetermining that the first subset corresponds to the command entry inthe command database, access the command entry corresponding to thefirst subset. For example, the media guidance application may query thecommand database for the command entry corresponding to the “PG” orcorresponding to both “Unblock” and “PG.” The media guidance applicationmay receive, in response, the command entry. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may extract, from the command entry, a firstparental control instruction. The first parental control instruction maycomprise a first parental control level. In some embodiments, the firstparental control instruction may also comprise the first parentalcontrol update command. For example, the media guidance application mayextract, by executing an SQL script utilizing the declarative “Select”command, from the command entry, the first parental control instructionto “unblock PG-13 rated content.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may process theaudio input, using an audio input analysis process, to determine aplurality of vocal characteristics of the user. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may run the audio input analysis processlocally to determine the plurality of vocal characteristics. In otherembodiments, the media guidance application may transmit the audio inputto a server or other dedicated processor to determine the plurality ofvocal characteristics. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the audio input has a speaking rate of 3.3 words persecond, a mean fundamental frequency of 330 Hertz (Hz), and an averageword duration of 45 milliseconds (ms).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare theplurality of vocal characteristics to a voice database associating vocalcharacteristics of the user with a plurality of age ranges. For example,the media guidance application may access a table that associates vocalcharacteristics with a plurality of age ranges. For example, the tablemay associate a speaking rate of greater than three words per secondwith an age range of greater than sixteen years old, a speaking rate oftwo to three words per second with an age range of twelve to sixteenyears old, and a speaking rate of less than two words per second with anage range of three to twelve years old. The table may further associatea mean fundamental frequency of less than 170 Hertz for a male speakerwith an age range of greater than sixteen years old, a mean fundamentalfrequency of between 170 and 250 Hertz for a female speaker with an agerange of greater than sixteen years old, a mean fundamental frequency ofbetween 250 and 350 Hertz for a female or male speaker with an age rangeof between twelve and sixteen years old, and a mean fundamentalfrequency of greater than 350 Hertz for a female or male speaker with anage range of between three and twelve years old. The table may furtherassociate an average word duration of less than 25 milliseconds with anage range of greater than sixteen years old, a average word duration ofbetween 25 and 50 milliseconds with an age range of between twelve andsixteen years old, and a average word duration of greater than 50milliseconds with an age range of between three and twelve years old.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may create the voicedatabase using crowdsourced data. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive, from a plurality of media devices, a pluralityof data structures. The plurality of data structures may comprise aplurality of audio inputs and a plurality of ages of a plurality ofusers, each data structure containing a respective audio inputassociated with an age of a respective user speaking in the respectiveaudio input. For example, the media guidance application may receivethree data structures from three media devices. The first may contain afirst audio input from a sixteen-year-old user, the second may contain asecond audio input from a thirteen-year-old user, and the third maycontain a third audio input from a nine-year-old user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may process theplurality of audio inputs to determine a plurality of sets of vocalcharacteristics. For example, the media guidance application may processthe first data structure to determine that the first audio input has aspeaking rate of 2.7 words per second, a mean fundamental frequency of270 Hertz, and an average word duration of 40 milliseconds. The mediaguidance application may process the second data structure to determinethat the second audio input has a speaking rate of 2.3 words per second,a mean fundamental frequency of 330 Hertz, and an average word durationof 35 milliseconds. The media guidance application may process the thirddata structure to determine that the third audio input has a speakingrate of 3.5 words per second, a mean fundamental frequency of 400 Hertz,and an average word duration of 20 milliseconds. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may determine, for each vocalcharacteristic, an average signature associated with each age based onthe plurality of sets of vocal characteristics to create a plurality ofaverage signatures. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on these audio inputs and additional audio inputs, theranges for each vocal characteristics and age range pairing, similar tothose discussed above in relation to the table accessed from the voicedatabase. The media guidance application may then associate each of theplurality of average signatures with a respective age in a datastructure. For example, the media guidance application may associate theaverage audio signatures with the respective age in a table similar tothat described above.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, basedon the comparison of the plurality of vocal characteristics of the userto the voice database, an age range of the plurality of age rangescorresponding to the user. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the age range corresponding to the user is twelve tosixteen based on the comparison of the user's vocal characteristics withthe voice database. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay determine the age range corresponding to the user using aprobability model. For example, the media guidance application maycompare each of the plurality of vocal characteristics of the user tothe plurality of vocal characteristics in the voice database todetermine a plurality of age ranges associated with the plurality ofvocal characteristics of the user and a plurality of weights associatedwith the plurality of vocal characteristics of the user. These weightsmay be indicative of how closely correlated the vocal characteristic iswith the age range. For example, the media guidance application maycompare the speaking rate of 3.3 words per second to the table todetermine that it is associated with an age range of three to twelve anda weight of 0.5, the mean fundamental frequency of 330 Hertz to thetable to determine that it is associated with an age range of twelve tosixteen and a weight of 0.5, and the average word duration of 45milliseconds to the table to determine that it is associated with an agerange of twelve to sixteen and a weight of 0.9.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine aplurality of sums. Each sum may be associated with a respective agerange, and calculated by summing weights associated with vocalcharacteristics associated with the respective age range. For example,the media guidance application may determine that the sum associatedwith the age range of twelve to sixteen is 1.4, and may determine thatthe sum associated with the age range of three to twelve is 0.5. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine the greatestsum of the plurality of sums. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the sum of 1.4 is the highest sum. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that theage range associated with the user is the age range associated with thegreatest sum. For example, based on determining that 1.4 is the greatestsum, the media guidance application may determine that the age range ofthe user is twelve to sixteen.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatat least two of the plurality of sums exceed a threshold sum. Forexample, the media guidance application may instead determine that thesum for the age range of three to twelve is 1.2. The media guidanceapplication may determine the threshold sum, which may be apredetermined number, or may be calculated based on the greatest sum(e.g., may be a certain percentage, such as 80%, of the greatest sum).The media guidance application may, based on determine that at least twoof the plurality of sums exceed the threshold sum, determining that theage range is a null age range. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the sums of 1.2 and 1.5 exceed thethreshold sum of 1.0, and may therefore determine that the age range isa null age range, which may indicate that the media guidance applicationcannot determine the age range.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may query memory fora second parental control level, where the second parental control levelis a parental control setting at a media device. For example, the mediaguidance application may access, from the memory, that the parentalcontrol level at the media device is blocking all programming that israted higher than “G.” In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may compare the age range corresponding to the user to anage associated with updating the parental control setting from thesecond parental control level based on the first parental controlinstruction to determine whether the age range corresponding to the userexceeds the age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the age range of twelve to sixteen, which corresponds tothe user, exceeds the age associated with updating the parental controlsetting from blocking all programming that is rated higher than “G” tounblocking “PG-rated” content, which may be ten years old. Note that inembodiments where the age range is set to be the null age range asdescribed above, the media guidance application may determine that theage range corresponding to the user does not exceed the age associatedwith updating the parental control setting from the second parentalcontrol level based on the first parental control instruction.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine theage associated with updating the parental control setting from thesecond parental control level based on the first parental controlinstruction by transmitting, to a parental control database, a requestfor a table associating a plurality of control instructions with aplurality of ages, and receive, from the parental control database, adata packet containing the table. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may compare the first parental control level, thatis, the parental control level of the first parental control instructioncontained in the audio input from the user, with the table to determinethe age of the plurality of ages associated with the first parentalcontrol level. For example, the media guidance application may comparethe first parental control level of “PG-rated content” with the table todetermine that updating based on a parental control instructionassociated with a parental control level of “PG-rated content” isassociated with an age of ten. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may further compare the first parental control updatecommand, that is, the first parental control update command of the firstparental control instruction contained in the audio input from the user,with the table to determine an age range associated with both the firstparental control level and the first parental control update command todetermine the age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. For example, the media guidance application maycompare the first parental control level of “PG-rated content” and“Unblock” to the table to determine that updating based on a parentalcontrol instruction of “unblocking PG-rated content” is associated withan age of ten. However, if the user had requested to “block PG-ratedcontent,” the age associated with updating based on that parentalcontrol instruction may be age two or have no age limit (or an age limitof zero).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare thefirst parental control level with the second parental control levelalready set at the media device. The media guidance application maydetermine whether the age associated with the second parental controllevel exceeds the age associated with the first parental control level.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the ageassociated with the second parental control level (which may be, forexample, blocking all content with higher than a “PG-13” rating) isthirteen years old, and the age associated with the first parentalcontrol level, or ten, as discussed above. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the age range corresponding to the userexceeds the age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction if the age associated with the second parentalcontrol level exceeds the age associated with the first parental controllevel. In this way, the media guidance application allows users to makechanges to the parental control setting at the media device in allsituations where the setting is already higher than their age.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update theparental control setting at the media device from the second parentalcontrol level to the first parental control level if the age rangeexceeds the age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. For example, if the media guidance applicationdetermines that the age range of twelve to sixteen, which corresponds tothe user, exceeds the age associated with updating the parental controlsetting from blocking all programming that is rated higher than “G” tounblocking “PG-rated” content, which may be ten, the media guidanceapplication may update the parental control setting at the media deviceto blocking all programming that is rated higher than “PG-rated” andthus unblock “PG-rated” content. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may notify the user that the parental control setting at themedia device will be updated to the first parental control level. Forexample, the media guidance application may generate a prompt fordisplay on a display device, or the media guidance application maygenerate a verbal notification for issuance from the display device,speakers, or the voice-based input device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive an audioinput of a second user authorized to change the second parental controllevel to the first parental control level on the media device. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive an audio input of aparent saying “No, don't!” The media guidance application may determinethat the second user is authorized to change the second parental controlto the first parental control level by analyzing age in a similar mannerto as described above. As another example, the media guidanceapplication may have a profile of users who can always change theparental control settings, and compare the voice signature of the audioinput to the profile of users to determine that there is a match. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may process the audioinput of the second user to determine that the audio input of the seconduser includes an instruction negating the first parental controlinstruction. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the audio input of the parent saying “No, don't!” is an instructionnegating the user's instruction to “unblock PG-rated content” at themedia device. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayrevert the parental control setting at the media device from the firstparental control level back to the second parental control level basedon determining that the audio input of the second user includes theinstruction negating the first parental control instruction. Forexample, in response to determining that “No, don't!” negates the user'sinstruction to “unblock PG-rated content,” the media guidanceapplication may revert the parental control setting from “blocking allcontent rated higher than PG-rated” back to “blocking all content ratedhigher than G-rated.”

In some embodiments, subsequent to updating the parental control settingat the media device, the media guidance application may receive an audioinput of a second plurality of words. For example, the first parentalcontrol instruction may have been to block R-rated content, which may beassociated with an age of ten years old from a user associated with anage range of twelve to sixteen years old.

The media guidance application may subsequently receive an audio inputfrom the voice-based input device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive an audio input of the user saying “UnblockR-rated content” subsequent to receiving the audio input of the usersaying “Block R-rated content.” In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine a second parental control instructionassociated with the second plurality of words. For example, the secondparental control instruction may be to “unblock R-rated content.” Thesecond parental control instruction may be of the same type as the firstparental control instruction. A “type” of parental control instructionrefers to the type of permissions the user is changing, for example,blocking/unblocking certain MPAA ratings, television ratings, or videogame ratings, changing purchasing permissions, or any other suitableparental control setting. For example, the first parental controlinstruction and the second parental control instruction were both tochange the settings related to MPAA ratings. The second parental controlinstruction comprises a third parental control level: for example, thethird parental control level may be “PG-13” as unblocking R-ratedcontent changes the setting from “block all programs rated higher thanR-rated” to “block all programs rated higher than PG-13 rated.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare thesecond parental control instruction to the first parental controlinstruction to determine that the second parental control instructionand the first parental control instruction are of the same type. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare data structures ofthe first and second parental control instructions to determine thatboth are of the type “updating settings related to MPAA ratings.” Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may compare an agerange associated with the audio input of the second plurality of words,which may be determined in a similar manner as described above, with theage range of the user to determine that the age range associated withthe audio input of the second plurality of words is the same or exceedsthe age range of the user. For example, if the same user input the firstparental control instruction and the second, the media guidanceapplication may determine that both instructions are associated with theage range of twelve to sixteen years old. If the second audio input isinput by another user that is in the twelve to sixteen years old agerange, or the sixteen to seventeen years old age range, then the mediaguidance application determines that the age range associated with thesecond audio input exceeds or is the same as the age range of the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, based ondetermining that the second parental control instruction and the firstparental control instruction are both of the first parental controltype, and that the age range associated with the audio input of thesecond plurality of words is the same or exceeds the age range of theuser, update the parental control setting at the media device from thefirst parental control level to the third parental control level. Forexample, the media guidance application may update the parental controllevel from “block all programs rated higher than R-rated” to “block allprograms rated higher than PG-13 rated.” In this way, if a user who istoo young to unblock certain programming wants to block the programmingfrom, say, a younger sibling, but then watch programming of that typelater, he or she can do so.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may maintain theparental control level at the media device based on determining that theage range does not exceed the age associated with updating the parentalcontrol setting from the second parental control level based on thefirst parental control instruction. For example, if the user was insteadassociated with an age range of three to seven, and tried to unblockPG-rated content, which is associated with an age of ten, the mediaguidance application may maintain the parental control level of“blocking all content rated higher than G-rated.” In some embodiments,the media guidance application may notify the user that the secondparental control level will be maintained. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate a prompt for display on a displaydevice, or the media guidance application may generate a verbalnotification for issuance from the display device, speakers, or thevoice-based input device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive an audioinput of a second user authorized to change the second parental controllevel to the first parental control level on the media device. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive an audio input of aparent saying “It's ok!” The media guidance application may determinethat the second user is authorized to change the second parental controlto the first parental control level similar to as described above. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may process the audioinput of the second user to determine that the audio input of the seconduser includes an instruction affirming the first parental controlinstruction. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the audio input of the parent saying “It's ok!” is an instructionaffirming the user's instruction to “unblock PG-rated content” at themedia device. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayupdate the parental control setting at the media device from the secondparental control level to the first parental control level based ondetermining that the audio input of the second user includes theinstruction affirming the first parental control instruction. Forexample, in response to determining that “It's ok!” affirms the user'sinstruction to “unblock PG-rated content,” the media guidanceapplication may change the parental control setting from “blocking allcontent rated higher than G-rated” to “blocking all content rated higherthan PG-rated,” by unblocking content that is PG-rated.

The described systems and methods can control permission of who canchange parental control settings on a media device based solely on thevocal characteristics of the user and without further user input.Conventional systems, while allowing users to use voice commands toupdate the parental control settings, might allow any user to update theparental control settings, require users to input passwords, or requiretime-consuming profile set-ups where profiles could be set up thatindicated who could update parental control settings. Thesetime-consuming processes could leave users annoyed with the amount oftime it took to change permissions or control who could changepermissions, or if they forgot their password, without a way to changethe parental control permissions. Users may therefore not use thisfeature, allowing children to access inappropriate content while theparent was not observing them. The past conventional systems did notappreciate using vocal characteristics and audio analysis to determinean age of the user, which could be used to determine what parentalcontrols the user may be able to update. The described systems andmethods, by processing the audio input from the user to change theparental control setting and comparing that age to an age required tomake the change, will eliminate the need for a user, particularly for aparent, to have to go through time-consuming processes of setting uppasswords or controlling permissions as to who can make changes to whatparental control settings. Thus, the systems and methods allow for anaccurate determination of the appropriateness of a user in changing theparental control settings at a media device, while eliminating the needfor the parent to go through the time-consuming process of inputting allof that data themselves. The described systems and methods additionallydescribe adapting what inputs are accepted based on past inputs andbased on other users affirming the changes requested by the originaluser who input the audio input, which allows for an even more accuratedetermination, and even personalization, of what may be appropriateparental control settings the user can make.

It should be noted the systems and/or methods described above may beapplied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses described in this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a media guidance applicationreceiving an audio input and controlling the parental control settingsat a media device based on the vocal characteristics of the user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a media guidanceapplication receiving an audio input and controlling the parentalcontrol settings at a media device based on the vocal characteristics ofthe user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a graphical representation of atable associating parental control levels and parental control updatecommands with ages, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative example of a graphical representation of adata structure in a voice database, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for use inaccessing media content, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 6 shows another illustrative example of a display screen used inaccessing media content, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for controlling permissionsto change parental control settings based on vocal characteristics of auser, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining an agerange of a user based on vocal characteristics of the user in an audioinput, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for controlling permissionsto change parental control settings subsequent to an initial update, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described herein for controlling permissions tochange parental control settings based on vocal characteristics of auser. These systems and methods may be implemented by a media guidanceapplication (e.g., executed by user equipment associated with the user).In some aspects, the media guidance application may receive a voicecommand from a user to update a parental control setting. The mediaguidance application may determine both what the requested change is andan age (or age range) of the user is who is attempting to change theparental control setting based on vocal characteristics of the voicecommand. If the media guidance application determines that an age rangeassociated with the user exceeds the age associated with the requestedchange to the parental control setting, the media guidance applicationmay update the parental control setting at a media device based on therequested change. In this way, the media guidance application may allowonly users of appropriate ages to change parental control settings atthe media device without a user having to indicate what users areallowed to change what settings.

For example, a user may utter a command (e.g., “Unblock R-rated movies”)to a voice-based input device. The media guidance application mayreceive the audio input of the utterance and parse the audio into aplurality of words, which may be compared to a command database todetermine the audio input includes a parental control instruction (e.g.,“Unblock” and “R-rated” may be found in the command database). The mediaguidance application may determine an age range corresponding to theuser in the audio input based on vocal characteristics (e.g., averageword length, mean fundamental frequency, or speaking rate) of the user.If the age range corresponding to the user exceeds the age associatedwith parental control instruction (e.g., unblocking R-rated programs maybe associated with an age of 18), the parental control setting isupdated at the device based on the parental control instruction (e.g.,R-rated programs will be unblocked).

The media guidance application may receive, from a voice-based inputdevice, an audio input of an utterance of a user, for example, the usersaying “Unblock PG-13 programs,” and parse the audio input into aplurality of words (e.g., “Unblock,” “PG-13,” and “programs”). The mediaguidance application may compare some of the parsed words (e.g.,“Unblock” and “PG-13”) to a command database to determine whether theycorrespond to an entry in the command database, indicating that theaudio input of the utterance of the user was an instruction regardingparental controls. If the media guidance application determines that thewords correspond to the entry, the media guidance application may accessthe entry to determine the parental control instruction (e.g., “UnblockPG-13-rated media content) including a parental control level(“PG-13-rated”).

The media guidance application may further process the audio input todetermine vocal characteristics of the user, such as their speakingrate, mean fundamental frequency, and average word duration. Thesecharacteristics may be indicative of the age of the user. The mediaguidance application may compare the vocal characteristics to a voicedatabase that aids the media guidance application in determining the agerange of the user. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user is between 16 and 20 years old based on thecomparison. The voice database may be populated by sampling vocalcharacteristics of a plurality of users who input their age into theirmedia guidance applications, and then, using those samples, determineaverage signatures for each vocal characteristic and age pair. In thisway, when the vocal characteristics of the user are compared to thevocal characteristics in the voice database, they can be compared to theaverage signatures to find the closest signature, and thus determine theage of the user.

Furthermore, each vocal characteristic and age pair may have a weightassociated with them, which may indicate how deterministic the vocalcharacteristic is of the age or age range (which may be associated witha deviation of the voice samples from the average signature or someother regression technique). The media guidance application may sum theweights for all vocal characteristics that correlate to a specific agerange, and then determine which age range has the greatest sum. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the age rangeof 16 to 20 years old may have a sum of 1.5 whereas the age range of sixto 12 years old may only have a sum of 0.2. The age range of 16 to 20years old may be used as the age range for the user because it has thegreater sum. However, if the sums for multiple age ranges exceed athreshold, that is, if the sum for six to 12 years old had been 1.3 or1.4 and the threshold was 1.2, the media guidance application maydetermine that there is too much uncertainty in the age of the user, andthus determine that the age range should be the null set, which meansthat the user should not be authorized to make any updates to theparental control settings on the media device as his or her age couldnot be determined. In the alternative, the age range may be set to 0,such that the user may be allowed to make certain updates that don'trequire a minimum age.

The media guidance application may determine what the current parentalcontrol level at the media device is. The media guidance application maycompare an age range corresponding to the user (e.g., 16 to 20 yearsold) to an age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. For example, any update related to the PG-13-ratingparental control level may be associated with an age of 13. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine that the ageof 13 is associated with the PG-13-rating based on a table associatingparental control instructions with a plurality of ages and comparing theparental control level (e.g., PG-13-ratings) to the table. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may additionally determine aparental control update command (e.g., “Unblock”) included in the audioinput as part of determining the parental control instruction, and mayfurther compare the parental control update command to the table. Forexample, unblocking PG-13-rated content may be associated with an age of13, but blocking PG-13-rated content may be associated with a lower age,such as five years old. Furthermore, the media guidance application mayalso compare the parental control level on the media device with therequested parental control level. For example, if the user is requestingto unblock PG-13-rated content, but R-rated movies are alreadyunblocked, then the media guidance application may allow the update tooccur regardless of the age range of the user.

The media guidance application may update the parental control settingat the media device from the parental control level (e.g., allowingPG-rated (or less) media content) at the media device to the firstparental control level (e.g., allowing PG-13-rated (or less) mediacontent) if the age range exceeds the age associated with updating theparental control level at the media device based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. However, if the age range does not exceed the age,then the media guidance application may maintain the parental controllevel (e.g., allowing PG-rated (or less) media content) at the mediadevice and not update the parental control level. In either case, anauthorized user (such as the parent) may respond to a notification thatthe parental control level at the media device will beupdated/maintained. For example, the media guidance application maynotify the user that the parental control level will be updated fromPG-rating to PG-13 rating and the authorized user may say, “No, don't!”Based on determining that this command negates the previous command, themedia guidance application may revert the parental control setting tothe original parental control level at the media device. Similarly, ifthe media guidance application notifies the authorized user that theparental control setting of PG-rating is to be maintained, theauthorized user may say “It's ok!” Based on determining that thiscommand affirms the previous command, the media guidance application mayupdate the parental control setting to PG-13-rating.

Finally, the media guidance application may receive a subsequent commandand treat this command differently if the command is changing the sameparental control setting of a particular type (e.g., a type may beupdating ratings or updating how much the user is allowed to spend onpurchased programming). For example, if the user, who may have an agerange of 12-16, had requested to block R-rated programming, which may beassociated with an age of 10, the media guidance application may updatethe parental control setting. That same user, or a user associated withan age range of 16-17, may later request to unblock R-rated programming,which may be associated with an age of 18. Normally, neither user may beable to unblock R-rated programming. However, based on determining thatthe second request (to unblock R-rated programming) is of the same typeas the first request (to block R-rated programming) and that the userissuing the second request is the same age or older than the user whoissued the first request, the media guidance application may allow thisupdate to occur.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a media guidance applicationreceiving an audio input and controlling the parental control settingsat a media device based on the vocal characteristics of the user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, user102 may say utterance 114 to instruct voice-based input device 106 tounblock PG-rated movies. Voice-based input device 106 may communicatethe audio input of utterance 114 or the instruction to media device 110via communications link 108, which may be connected to display 112. Inresponse to utterance 114, voice-based input device 118 may issuenotification 118. In response to notification 118, user 104 may sayutterance 116.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application, for example,implemented on media device 110 may receive, from voice-based inputdevice 106, an audio input of utterance 114 of user 102. For example,the media guidance application may receive, over communication link 108from voice-based input device 106, an audio input of utterance 114 ofuser 102 saying “Unblock PG-rated movies.” In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may, based on receiving the audio input overcommunications link 108 from voice-based input device 106, parse theaudio input into a first plurality of words (e.g., “Unblock,”“PG-rated,” and “Movies”). In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may run a natural language understanding subprocess locallyto convert the audio input into a string of words. In other embodiments,the media guidance application may transmit the audio input to a serveror other dedicated processor to parse the audio input.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, which may beimplemented on media device 110, may compare a first subset of the firstplurality of words corresponding to utterance 114 of user 102 to acommand database to determine that the first subset of the firstplurality of words corresponds to a command entry in the commanddatabase. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve adata structure or table comprising a plurality of parental controlupdate commands and a plurality of parental control levels. For example,the plurality of parental control update commands may be “Unblock,”“Block,” “Allow,” and “Prevent.” The plurality of parental controllevels may be “G,” “PG,” “PG-13,” “R,” “Violence,” “Language,” “Sexualcontent,” “Nudity,” “Purchasing,” “Purchasing+[monetary value]” “TV-G,”“TV-PG,” “TV-14,” “TV-MA,” “E,” “E-10-Plus,” “T,” and “M.” The mediaguidance application may determine that “PG-rated” (a first subset ofutterance 114 of user 102) relates to the same parental control level inthe command database. The media guidance application may thereforedetermine that the audio input comprises a parental control instruction.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also compare asecond subset of the first plurality of words to the command database todetermine a first parental control update command. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that “Unblock” (a second subsetof the words of utterance 114 of user 102) corresponds to the sameparental control update command in the command database as describedabove.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, which may beimplemented on media device 110, may, based on determining that thefirst subset corresponds to the command entry in the command database,access the command entry corresponding to the first subset. For example,the media guidance application may query the command database for thecommand entry corresponding to the “PG” or corresponding to both“Unblock” and “PG.” The media guidance application may receive, inresponse, the command entry. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may extract, from the command entry, a first parentalcontrol instruction corresponding to the audio input of utterance 114 ofuser 102. The first parental control instruction may comprise a firstparental control level. In some embodiments, the first parental controlinstruction may also comprise a first parental control update command.For example, the media guidance application may extract, by executing anSQL script utilizing the declarative “Select” command, from the commandentry, the first parental control instruction to “unblock PG-13 ratedcontent” associated with the audio input of utterance 114 of user 102.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, which may beimplemented on media device 110, may process the audio input ofutterance 114 of user 102, using an audio input analysis process, todetermine a plurality of vocal characteristics of user 102. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may run the audio inputanalysis process locally to determine the plurality of vocalcharacteristics. In other embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay transmit the audio input to a server or other dedicated processor todetermine the plurality of vocal characteristics. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the audio input of utterance 114of user 102 has a speaking rate of 3.3 words per second, a meanfundamental frequency of 330 Hertz (Hz), and an average word duration of45 milliseconds (ms).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare theplurality of vocal characteristics of utterance 114 of user 102 to avoice database associating vocal characteristics of user 102 with aplurality of age ranges. For example, the media guidance application mayaccess a table that associates vocal characteristics with a plurality ofage ranges. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may,based on the comparison of the plurality of vocal characteristics ofuser 102 to the voice database, an age range corresponding to user 102.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the agerange corresponding to user 102 is twelve to sixteen based on thecomparison of the user's vocal characteristics with the voice database.More details on the voice database are provided below in relation toFIG. 4.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, which may beimplemented on user device 110, may query memory of user device 110 fora second parental control level, where the second parental control levelis a parental control setting at a media device. For example, the mediaguidance application may access, from memory of user device 110, thatthe parental control level at media device 110 is blocking allprogramming that is rated higher than “G.” In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may compare the age range corresponding touser 102 to an age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control level based on the first parentalcontrol instruction to determine whether the age range corresponding tothe user exceeds the age associated with updating the parental controlsetting from the second parental control level based on the firstparental control instruction. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the age range of twelve to sixteen, whichcorresponds to the user, exceeds the age associated with updating theparental control setting from blocking all programming that is ratedhigher than “G” to unblocking “PG-rated” content, which may be ten yearsold. More details relating to comparing the age range and the ageassociated with updating and determining the age range are presentedbelow in relation to FIG. 3.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update theparental control setting at media device 110 from the second parentalcontrol level to the first parental control level if the age range ofuser 102 exceeds the age associated with updating the parental controlsetting from the second parental control level based on the firstparental control instruction as determined from the audio input ofutterance 114 of user 102. For example, if the media guidanceapplication determines that the age range of twelve to sixteen, whichcorresponds to user 102, exceeds the age associated with updating theparental control setting from blocking all programming that is ratedhigher than “G” to unblocking “PG-rated” content, which may be ten, themedia guidance application may update the parental control setting atmedia device 110 to blocking all programming that is rated higher than“PG-rated” and thus unblock “PG-rated” content. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may notify user 102 that the parental controlsetting at media device 102 will be updated to the first parentalcontrol level. For example, the media guidance application may generatenotification 116 for issuance from voice-based input device 106.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, which may beimplemented on media device 110, may receive an audio input of utterance116 of user 104, who may be authorized to change the second parentalcontrol level to the first parental control level on media device 110.For example, the media guidance application may receive an audio inputof utterance 116 of user 104 (e.g., user 104 saying “No, pleasedon't!”), who may be the parent of user 102. The media guidanceapplication may determine that user 104 is authorized to change thesecond parental control to the first parental control level at mediadevice 110 by analyzing their age in a similar manner to the methoddescribed above. As another example, the media guidance application mayhave a profile of users (e.g., user 104's and user 102's other parent)who can always change the parental control settings at media device 110,and compare the voice signature of the audio input of utterance 116 tothe profile of users to determine that there is a match. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may process the audio inputof utterance 116 of user 104 to determine that the audio input ofutterance 116 of user 104 includes an instruction negating the firstparental control instruction contained in utterance 114 of user 102. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the audioinput of utterance 116 of user 104 (e.g., user 104 saying “No, pleasedon't!”) is an instruction negating user 102's instruction in utterance114 to “unblock PG-rated content” at media device 110. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may revert the parentalcontrol setting at media device 110 from the first parental controllevel back to the second parental control level based on determiningthat the audio input of utterance 116 of user 104 includes theinstruction negating the first parental control instruction receivedfrom user 102. For example, in response to determining that “No, pleasedon't!” negates the user 102's instruction in utterance 114 to “unblockPG-rated content,” the media guidance application may revert theparental control setting at media device 110 from “blocking all contentrated higher than PG-rated” back to “blocking all content rated higherthan G-rated.”

Instead of immediately updating the parental control setting at mediadevice 110, the media guidance application may store, at voice-basedinput device 106, the updated parental control setting. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a parental control instructionfrom user 104 (e.g., an audio input from user 104) instructing the mediaguidance application to allow access to R-rated films for one hour. Oncethe media guidance application determines that the user is allowed tomake such an update (e.g., using the process described above), the mediaguidance application may store, at voice-based input device 106, updatedparental control instruction, that is, unblocking access to R-ratedcontent for one hour. The parental control setting at media device 110may therefore remain as blocking all access to content rated R-rated orhigher. If user 102 requests to watch an R-rated program within the nexthour at media device 110, media device may query voice-based inputdevice 106 over communications link 108 for an updated parental controlsetting. In this way, voice-based input device 106 may act as theauthoritative device, and media device 110 may be a follower device,where the voice-based input device may have the power to overridesettings at the media device 110. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may always have to check with voice-based inputdevice 106 for settings such as parental control settings.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may block access tocontent, on media device 110, based on the parental control setting. Forexample, the media guidance application may access the parental controlsetting and compare the parental control setting to metadata associatedwith requested content. However, in some instances, metadata associatedwith the requested content may be unavailable, such as online videocontent or live broadcast programming, or may be out-of-date. The mediaguidance application may use voice-based input device 110 to determine arating for the requested content. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive, from voice-based input device 110, an audioinput of the requested content. The media guidance application maycompare the audio input to a program audio signature database todetermine if there is a match. If there is a match, the media guidanceapplication may receive, from the program audio signature database,metadata relating to the requested content. For example, if user 102 iswatching online video content (which may have no metadata relating tothe parental control rating) on display 112, the media guidanceapplication may receive, from voice-based input device 110, an audioclip that contains the line “I'll be back.” The media guidanceapplication may compare this audio clip to the program audio signaturedatabase to determine that the online video is a clip from “Terminator.”The media guidance application may then receive, from the program audiosignature database, metadata relating to the film “Terminator,” andassociate that metadata with the online video content, and controlaccess to the online video content according to the parental controlrating for terminator.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may not be able todetermine that the requested content is associated with a program thathas metadata associated therewith. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may use voice-based input device 106 to monitor therequested content to determine a plurality of audio inputs. The mediaguidance application may compare each of the plurality of audio inputsto a rating database to determine if any of the plurality of audioinputs comprise explicit language, or audio signatures that match withaudio signatures for violent content or sexually explicit content. Inthis way, the media guidance application may be able to determine ifthere is explicit content that warrants updating the rating of therequested content. The media guidance application may thereafter updatethe metadata for the requested content based on the comparison of theplurality of audio inputs to the ratings database. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may transmit, to a database, the updatedmetadata to ensure that the database has the most up-to-date metadataregarding the requested program.

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a media guidanceapplication receiving an audio input and controlling the parentalcontrol settings at a media device based on the vocal characteristics ofthe user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Forexample, user 202 may say utterance 214 to instruct voice-based inputdevice 206 to unblock all movie purchases. Voice-based input device 206may communicate the audio input of utterance 214 or the instruction tomedia device 210 via communications link 208, which may be connected todisplay 212. In response to utterance 214, media device 110 may generatefor display, on display 212, notification 218. In response tonotification 218, user 204 may say utterance 216. In some embodiments, amedia guidance application, which may be implemented on media device210, may process an audio input of utterance 214 of user 202, receivedover communication link 208 from voice-based input device 206, in asimilar manner to as described above to determine both an age range foruser 202 based on the vocal characteristics of user 202 and based oncomparing the words of the audio input of utterance 214 of user 202 tothe command database. The media guidance application may determine thatthe age range of user 202 is twelve to sixteen, and may determine thatthe age associated with unblocking all movie purchases, the parentalcontrol instruction associated with the audio input of utterance 214 ofuser 202 received at voice-based input device 206, is seventeen. Themedia guidance application may compare the age range of twelve tosixteen to the age associated with the parental control instruction todetermine that the age range associated with user 202 does not exceedthe age associated with the parental control instruction.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may maintain theparental control level at media device 210 based on determining that theage range associated with user 202 does not exceed the age associatedwith updating the parental control setting from a parental control levelalready set at media device 210 based on the parental controlinstruction contained in utterance 214 of user 102. For example, becauseupdating the parental control level of “blocking all purchases” to“allowing all purchases” on media device 210 is associated with an ageof seventeen, and user 210 is in an age range of twelve to sixteen, themedia guidance application may maintain the parental control level of“blocking all purchases” on media device 210. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may notify user 202, with notification 218,that the second parental control level will be maintained at mediadevice 210. For example, the media guidance application may generatenotification 218 for display on display 212.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, which may beimplemented on media device 210, may receive an audio input of utterance216 of user 204 (e.g., “It's ok”) authorized to change the secondparental control level to the first parental control level on mediadevice 210. The media guidance application may determine that user 204is authorized to change the second parental control to the firstparental control level in a similar manner to that described above. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may process the audioinput of utterance 216 of user 204 to determine that the audio input ofutterance 216 of user 204 includes an instruction affirming the firstparental control instruction. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the audio input of utterance 216 of user204 (e.g., “It's ok”) is an instruction affirming user 202's instructionin utterance 214 to “unblock all purchasing” at media device 210. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may update the parentalcontrol setting at media device 210 from the second parental controllevel (e.g., “blocking all purchases”) to the first parental controllevel (“allowing all purchases”) based on determining that the audioinput of utterance 216 of user 204 includes the instruction affirmingthe first parental control instruction received from user 202. Forexample, in response to determining that “It's ok!” affirms the user202's instruction in utterance 214 to “unblock all purchases,” the mediaguidance application may change the parental control setting from“blocking all purchases” to “allowing all purchases” by unblocking allpurchasing at media device 210.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a graphical representation of atable associating parental control levels and parental control updatecommands with ages, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Table 302 may associate parental control levels 304 andparental control update commands 306 with ages 308. A media guidanceapplication may use table 302 to help determine an age associated withupdating a parental control setting at a media device from the parentalcontrol level on the media device based on a parental controlinstruction comprising a parental control level of parental controllevels 304 and a parental control update command of parental controlupdate commands 306.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine theage associated with updating the parental control setting from theparental control level on the media device based on the parental controlinstruction comprising the parental control level of parental controllevel 304 and the parental control update command of parental controlupdate commands 306 by transmitting, to a parental control database, arequest for table 304 and may receive, from the parental controldatabase, a data packet containing table 302. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may compare the parental control level ofparental control level 304, which may be the first parental controllevel of the parental control instruction associated with audio input ofutterance 114 of user 102 in FIG. 1, with table 302 to determine an ageof ages 308 associated with updating the parental control setting. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare a parental controllevel of “PG-rated content” with parental control levels 302 of table302 to determine that updating based on a parental control instructionassociated with a parental control level of “PG-rated content” isassociated with an age of ten of ages 308. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may further compare a parental control updatecommand with parental control update commands 306 of table 302 todetermine an age range associated with both the parental control levelof parental control level 304 and the parental control update command ofparental control update commands 306 to determine the age associatedwith updating the parental control setting from the parental controllevel at the media device based on the parental control instructioncomprising the parental control level of parental control level 304 andthe parental control update command of parental control update commands306. For example, the media guidance application may compare a parentalcontrol level of “PG-rated content” to parental control levels 304 oftable 302 and a parental control update command of “Unblock” to parentalcontrol update commands 306 of table 302 to determine that updatingbased on a parental control instruction of “unblocking PG-rated content”is associated with an age of ten of ages 308. However, if the user hadrequested to “block PG-rated content,” the age of ages 308 associatedwith updating based on that parental control instruction may be 0, ormay not have a minimum age.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update theparental control setting at the media device from the parental controllevel already on the media device to the parental control level ofparental control levels 304 if the age range exceeds the age of ages308. Note however, that table 302 informs only an age of ages 308associated with the parental control instruction comprising the parentalcontrol level of parental control level 304 and the parental controlupdate command of parental control update commands 306, but the age ofupdating from the parental control level at the media device based onthe parental control instruction may be different than simply the age ofages 308, or some updates may be allowed even if the user may notnormally have permissions to make the update they wish to make. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may compare the parentalcontrol level of parental control levels 304 with the parental controllevel already set at the media device. The media guidance applicationmay determine whether the age associated with the parental control levelat the media device exceeds the age of ages 308 (e.g., ten). Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the ageassociated with the parental control level already set at the mediadevice (which may be, for example, blocking all content with an R-ratingor higher) is eighteen years old based on table 302, and the age of ages308 associated with the parental control level of parental control level304 is ten, and based on determining that the age of ages 308 associatedwith the parental control level of parental control level 304 is lessthan the parental control level already on the media device, that thisupdate is always allowed. In this way, the media guidance applicationallows users to make changes to the parental control setting at themedia device in all situations where the setting is associated with ahigher age than the age associated with their request despite their age.

In some embodiments, subsequent to updating the parental control settingat the media device to the parental control level of parental controllevel 304, the media guidance application may receive an audio input ofa plurality of words. For example, the parental control instructioncomprising the parental control level of parental control level 304 andthe parental control update command of parental control update commands306 may have been to “block R-rated content,” which may be associatedwith an age of ages 308 of ten years old from a user associated with anage range of twelve to sixteen years old. The media guidance applicationmay subsequently receive an audio input from the voice-based inputdevice (e.g., voice-based input device 110 of FIG. 1). For example, themedia guidance application may receive an audio input of the user saying“Unblock R-rated content” subsequent to receiving the audio input of theuser saying “Block R-rated content.” In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may determine a second parental control instructionassociated with the second plurality of words. For example, the secondparental control instruction comprising a second parental control levelof parental control levels 304 and a second parental control updatecommand of parental control update commands 306 may be to “unblockR-rated content.” The second parental control instruction may be of thesame type as the first parental control instruction. A “type” ofparental control instruction refers to the type of permissions the useris changing, for example, blocking/unblocking certain MPAA ratings,television ratings, or video game ratings, changing purchasingpermissions, or any other suitable parental control setting. Forexample, the first parental control instruction and the second parentalcontrol instruction were both to change the settings related to MPAAratings.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare thesecond parental control instruction (e.g., “Unblock R-rated movies”) tothe first parental control instruction (e.g., “Block R-rated movies”) todetermine that the second parental control instruction and the firstparental control instruction are of the same type. For example, themedia guidance application may compare data structures of the first andsecond parental control instructions to determine that both are of thetype “updating settings related to MPAA ratings.” In some embodiments,the media guidance application may compare an age range associated withthe audio input of the second plurality of words, which may bedetermined in a similar manner as described above, with the age range ofthe user to determine that the age range associated with the audio inputof the second plurality of words is the same or exceeds the age range ofthe user. For example, if the same user input the first parental controlinstruction and the second, the media guidance application may determinethat both instructions are associated with the age range of twelve tosixteen years old. If the second audio input is input by another userthat is in the twelve to sixteen years old age range, or the sixteen toseventeen years old age range, then the media guidance applicationdetermines that the age range associated with the second audio inputexceeds or is the same as the age range of the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, based ondetermining that the second parental control instruction and the firstparental control instruction are both of the first parental controltype, and that the age range associated with the audio input of thesecond plurality of words is the same or exceeds the age range of theuser, update the parental control setting at the media device from theparental control level of parental control levels 304 to the secondparental control level of parental control levels 304. For example, themedia guidance application may update the parental control level from“block all programs rated higher than R-rated” to “block all programsrated higher than PG-13 rated.” In this way, if a user who is too youngto unblock certain programming wants to block the programming from, say,a younger sibling, but then watch programming of that type later, theycan do so.

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative example of a graphical representation of adata structure in a voice database, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. Table 402 may associate vocal characteristics 404,such as speaking rates 410, mean fundamental frequencies 412, andaverage word durations 414 with age ranges 406 and weights 408. Weights408 may signify a relative confidence or relative correlation betweenvocal characteristics 404 and their respective age range of age ranges406. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may use table402 to determine an age range associated with a user, using a pluralityof vocal characteristics in an audio input (e.g., the audio input ofutterance 114 of user 102 in FIG. 1). For example, the media guidanceapplication may access table 402 based on receiving the audio input.

Table 402 may associate speaking rates 410 with age ranges 406; forexample, a speaking rate of greater than three words per second may beassociated with an age range of greater than sixteen years old, aspeaking rate of two to three words per second may be associated with anage range of twelve to sixteen years old, and a speaking rate of lessthan two words per second may be associated with an age range of threeto twelve years old. Table 402 may further associate mean fundamentalfrequencies 412 with age ranges 406; for example, a mean fundamentalfrequency of less than 170 Hertz for a male speaker may be associatedwith an age range of greater than sixteen years old, a mean fundamentalfrequency of between 170 and 250 Hertz for a female speaker may beassociated with an age range of greater than sixteen years old, a meanfundamental frequency of between 250 and 350 Hertz for a female or malespeaker may be associated with an age range of between twelve andsixteen years old, and a mean fundamental frequency of greater than 350Hertz for a female or male speaker may be associated with an age rangeof between three and twelve years old. Finally, table 402 may associateaverage word duration with age ranges 406, for example, an average wordduration of less than 25 milliseconds may be associated with an agerange of greater than sixteen years old, a average word duration ofbetween 25 and 50 milliseconds may be associated with an age range ofbetween twelve and sixteen years old, and a average word duration ofgreater than 50 milliseconds may be associated with an age range ofbetween three and twelve years old. One of ordinary skill in the artwould understand that other vocal characteristics may be used, and thatthe chosen speaking rates 410, mean fundamental frequencies 412, andaverage word durations 414, and their associated age ranges 406 andweights 408 were chosen merely as examples, and that other appropriatespeaking rates, mean fundamental frequencies, and average word durationsmay be associated with different age ranges and weights.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may create table 402for storage in the voice database using crowdsourced data. For example,the media guidance application may receive, from a plurality of mediadevices, a plurality of data structures. The plurality of datastructures may comprise a plurality of audio inputs and a plurality ofages of a plurality of users, each data structure containing arespective audio input associated with an age of a respective userspeaking in the respective audio input. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive three data structures from three media devices.The first may contain a first audio input from a sixteen-year-old user,the second may contain a second audio input from a thirteen-year-olduser, and the third may contain a third audio input from a nine-year-olduser.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may process theplurality of audio inputs to determine a plurality of sets of vocalcharacteristics.

For example, the media guidance application may process the first datastructure to determine that the first audio input has a speaking rate of2.7 words per second, a mean fundamental frequency of 270 Hertz, and anaverage word duration of 40 milliseconds. The media guidance applicationmay process the second data structure to determine that the second audioinput has a speaking rate of 2.3 words per second, a mean fundamentalfrequency of 330 Hertz, and an average word duration of 35 milliseconds.The media guidance application may process the third data structure todetermine that the third audio input has a speaking rate of 3.5 wordsper second, a mean fundamental frequency of 400 Hertz, and an averageword duration of 20 milliseconds. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may determine, for each vocal characteristic, anaverage signature associated with each age based on the plurality ofsets of vocal characteristics to create a plurality of averagesignatures. For example, the media guidance application may determine,based on these audio inputs and additional audio inputs, vocalcharacteristics 404 and age ranges 406, and how such information shouldbe paired. The media guidance application may then associate vocalcharacteristics 404 with age ranges 406 in table 402. For example, themedia guidance application may associate the average audio signatures,which may comprise vocal characteristics 404 with the respective age,which may comprise age ranges 406, in table 402.

As discussed above, in some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay determine, based on the comparison of the plurality of vocalcharacteristics of the user to table 402, an age range of the pluralityof age ranges corresponding to the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the age range corresponding to the useris twelve to sixteen based on the comparison of the user's vocalcharacteristics with the voice database. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may determine the age range of age ranges 406corresponding to the user using a probability model. For example, themedia guidance application may compare each of the plurality of vocalcharacteristics of the user to vocal characteristics 404 in table 402 todetermine a plurality of age ranges 406 associated with the plurality ofvocal characteristics of the user and a plurality of weights 408associated with the plurality of vocal characteristics of the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare a speaking rate of3.3 words per second to speaking rates 410 in table 402 to determinethat it is associated with an age range of age ranges 406 of three totwelve and a weight of weights 408 of 0.5, a mean fundamental frequencyof 330 Hertz to mean fundamental frequencies 412 in table 402 todetermine that it is associated with an age range of age ranges 406 oftwelve to sixteen and a weight of weights 408 of 0.5, and an averageword duration of 45 milliseconds to average word durations 414 in table402 to determine that it is associated with an age range of age ranges406 of twelve to sixteen and with a weight of weights 408 of 0.9.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine aplurality of sums. Each sum may be associated with a respective agerange of age ranges 406, and calculated by summing weights associatedwith vocal characteristics 404 associated with the respective age rangeof age ranges 406. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the sum associated with the age range of age ranges 406of twelve to sixteen is 1.4, and may determine that the sum associatedwith the age range of age ranges 406 of three to twelve is 0.5. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine the greatestsum of the plurality of sums. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the sum of 1.4 is the greatest sum. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that theage range of age ranges 406 associated with the user is the age range ofage ranges 406 associated with the greatest sum. For example, based ondetermining that 1.4 is the greatest sum, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the age range of age ranges 406 of the user is twelveto sixteen.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatat least two of the plurality of sums exceed a threshold sum. Forexample, the media guidance application may instead determine that thesum for the age range of age ranges 406 of three to twelve is 1.2. Themedia guidance application may determine the threshold sum, which may bea predetermined number, or may be calculated based on the greatest sum(e.g., may be a certain percentage, such as 80%, of the greatest sum).The media guidance application may, based on determining that at leasttwo of the plurality of sums exceed the threshold sum, determine thatthe age range is a null age range. For example, if the media guidanceapplication may determine that the sums of 1.2 and 1.5 exceed thethreshold sum of 1.0, and may therefore determine that the age range isa null age range, which may indicate that the media guidance applicationcannot determine the age range. Note that in embodiments where the agerange is set to be the null age range, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the age range corresponding to the user does notexceed any ages associated with updating a parental control setting froma parental control level currently set on a media device based on aparental control instruction received from a user, as described above inrelation to FIG. 3.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 5-6 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 5-6 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 5-6 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 5 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 500arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 500 may include grid 502 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 504, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 506, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 502 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 508, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 510. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 510 may be provided inprogram information region 512. Region 512 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 502 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 514, recorded content listing 516, andInternet content listing 518. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display.

Various permutations of the types of media guidance data that may bedisplayed that are different than display 500 may be based on userselection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of onlyrecorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings,etc.). As illustrated, listings 514, 516, and 518 are shown as spanningthe entire time block displayed in grid 502 to indicate that selectionof these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demandlistings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In someembodiments, listings for these content types may be included directlyin grid 502. Additional media guidance data may be displayed in responseto the user selecting one of the navigational icons 520. (Pressing anarrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similarmanner as selecting navigational icons 520.)

Display 500 may also include video region 522, and options region 526.

Video region 522 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 522 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 502. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 526 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 526 may be part of display 500 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 526 may concern features related to program listings in grid 502or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 8.

Additional personalized media guidance application features aredescribed in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S.Pat. No. 7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 6. Video mosaic display 600 includes selectable options 602 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 600, television listings option 604 isselected, thus providing listings 606, 608, 610, and 612 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 600 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 608 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 614 and text portion 616.Media portion 614 and/or text portion 616 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 614 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 600 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 606 islarger than listings 608, 610, and 612), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 7 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 700. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 8.User equipment device 700 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 702. I/O path 702 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 704, which includesprocessing circuitry 706 and storage 708. Control circuitry 704 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 702. I/O path 702 may connect control circuitry 704 (andspecifically processing circuitry 706) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 704 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 706. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 704 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 708). Specifically, control circuitry 704 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 704 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 704 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 704 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 8). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 708 thatis part of control circuitry 704. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 708 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 8, may be used to supplementstorage 708 or instead of storage 708.

Control circuitry 704 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 704 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 700. Circuitry 704 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 708 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 700, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 708.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 704 using user inputinterface 710. User input interface 710 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 712 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 700. For example, display 712 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 710may be integrated with or combined with display 712. Display 712 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 712 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 712 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 712.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry704. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 704.Speakers 714 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 700 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 712 may be played throughspeakers 714. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers714.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 700. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage708), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 704 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 708 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 704 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 710. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 710 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 700 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 700. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 704 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 704) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 700. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 700.Equipment device 700 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 710 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 700 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 710.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 700 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 704). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 704 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 704. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 704. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 700 of FIG. 7 can be implemented in system 800 ofFIG. 8 as user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804,wireless user communications device 806, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 7 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, or awireless user communications device 806. For example, user televisionequipment 802 may, like some user computer equipment 804, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 804 may, like some television equipment 802, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 804, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 806.

In system 800, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 8 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 802, user computer equipment 804, wireless user communicationsdevice 806) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 814.Namely, user television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, andwireless user communications device 806 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 814 via communications paths 808, 810, and 812, respectively.Communications network 814 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 808, 810, and 812 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 812 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 8 it is awireless path and paths 808 and 810 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 808, 810, and 812, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 814.

System 800 includes content source 816 and media guidance data source818 coupled to communications network 814 via communication paths 820and 822, respectively. Paths 820 and 822 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 808, 810,and 812. Communications with the content source 816 and media guidancedata source 818 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 816 and media guidance data source 818, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 816 and media guidance data source 818 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 816 and 818 withuser equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 are shown as throughcommunications network 814, in some embodiments, sources 816 and 818 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 808, 810, and 812.

Content source 816 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 816 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 816 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 816 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 818 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 818may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 818 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 818 mayprovide user equipment devices 802, 804, and 806 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 708, and executedby control circuitry 704 of a user equipment device 700. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 704 of user equipment device 700and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 818) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 818), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 818 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices802, 804, and 806 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 800 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 8.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 814.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 816 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 802 and user computer equipment 804may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 806 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 814. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 816 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 818. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 802, user computer equipment 804, and wirelessuser communications device 806. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 804 or wireless usercommunications device 806 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 804. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 814. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 7.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for controlling permissionsto change parental control settings based on vocal characteristics of auser, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Forexample, a media guidance application may instruct control circuitry 706to execute the elements of process 900.

Process 900 begins at 902, where the media guidance application receives(e.g., via control circuitry 706), from a voice-based input device(e.g., voice-based input device 106 or user input interface 710), anaudio input of an utterance of a user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive (e.g., via control circuitry 706), over acommunication link (e.g., communications link 108) from the voice-basedinput device, an audio input of the user saying “Unblock PG-ratedmovies.”

Process 900 continues to 904, where the media guidance applicationparses (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the audio input into a firstplurality of words. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay run (e.g., via control circuitry 706) a natural languageunderstanding subprocess, retrieved from memory (e.g., storage 708),locally (e.g., at user equipment device 802) to convert the audio clipinto a string of words. In other embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may transmit (e.g., via control circuitry 706 overcommunications network 814) the audio input to a server or otherdedicated processor (e.g., media guidance data source 818) to parse theaudio input into the first plurality of words (e.g., “Unblock,”“PG-rated,” and “Movies”).

Process 900 continues to 906, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 706) a first subset of the firstplurality of words to a command database (e.g., media guidance datasource 818). For example, the media guidance application may retrieve(e.g., from storage 708 or from media guidance data source 818 overcommunications network 814) a data structure or table (e.g., table 302)comprising a plurality of parental control update commands and aplurality of parental control levels. For example, the plurality ofparental control update commands may be “Unblock,” “Block,” “Allow,” and“Prevent.” The plurality of parental control levels may be “G,” “PG,”“PG-13,” “R,” “Violence,” “Language,” “Sexual content,” “Nudity,”“Purchasing,” “Purchasing+[monetary value]” “TV-G,” “TV-PG,” “TV-14,”“TV-MA,” “E,” “E-10-Plus,” “T,” and “M.” The media guidance applicationmay determine (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that “PG” (a firstsubset) relates to the same parental control level in the commanddatabase. The media guidance application may therefore determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 706) that the audio input comprises a parentalcontrol instruction.

Process 900 continues to 908, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) whether the first subset ofthe first plurality of words corresponds to a command entry in thecommand database (e.g., media guidance data source 818). If the mediaguidance application determines that the first subset of the firstplurality of words does not correspond to a command entry in the commanddatabase (e.g., if the first subset of the first plurality of words hadbeen “movies”), process 900 continues to 910, where the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) whether thereare additional subsets of the first plurality of words. If the mediaguidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) thatthere are additional subsets of the first plurality of words, process900 returns to 906, where the media guidance application compares (e.g.,via control circuitry 706) a new subset of the first plurality of wordsto the command database. If the media guidance application, at 910,determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that there are noadditional subsets of the first plurality of words, process 900continues to 912, where the media guidance application determines (e.g.,via control circuitry 706) that the audio input is not a parentalcontrol instruction.

If the media guidance application determines, at 908, that the firstsubset of the first plurality of words corresponds to a command entry inthe command database (e.g., media guidance data source 818), process 900continues to 914, where the media guidance application accesses (e.g.,via control circuitry 706 from media guidance data source 818 overcommunications network 814) the command entry corresponding to the firstsubset. For example, the media guidance application may query (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 706) the command database (e.g., media guidance datasource 818) for the command entry corresponding to the “PG.” The mediaguidance application may receive (e.g., via control circuitry 706 overcommunications network 814), in response, the command entry.

Process 900 continues to 916, where the media guidance applicationextracts (e.g., via control circuitry 706), from the entry, a firstparental control instruction, where the first parental controlinstruction comprises a first parental control level. For example, themedia guidance application may extract (e.g., via control circuitry706), by executing an SQL script utilizing the declarative “Select”command, from the command entry, the first parental control instructionto “unblock PG-13 rated content.” The first parental control instructionmay include the first parental control level of “PG-13.”

Process 900 continues to 918, where the media guidance applicationprocesses (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the audio input, using anaudio input analysis process, to determine a plurality of vocalcharacteristics of the user. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may run (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the audio inputanalysis process, which may be stored in memory (e.g., in storage 708)locally (e.g., at user television equipment 802) to determine theplurality of vocal characteristics. In other embodiments, the mediaguidance application may transmit (e.g., via control circuitry 706 overcommunications network 814) the audio input to a server or otherdedicated processor (e.g., media guidance data source 818) to determinethe plurality of vocal characteristics. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that theaudio input has a speaking rate of 3.3 words per second, a meanfundamental frequency of 330 Hertz, and an average word duration of 45milliseconds.

Process 900 continues to 920, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the plurality of vocalcharacteristics to a voice database associating vocal characteristics ofthe user with a plurality of age ranges. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access (e.g., from storage 708 or from media guidancedata source 818 over communications network 814) a table (e.g., table402) that associates vocal characteristics (e.g., vocal characteristics404) with a plurality of age ranges (e.g., age ranges 406).

Process 900 continues to 922, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) an age range of theplurality of age ranges corresponding to the user based on thecomparison. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the age range corresponding to the user is twelve to sixteen basedon the comparison of the user's vocal characteristics with the voicedatabase (e.g., table 402). More details regarding determining the agerange corresponding to the user are given above in relation to FIG. 4.

Process 900 continues to 924, where the media guidance applicationqueries (e.g., via control circuitry 706) memory (e.g., storage 708) fora second parental control level, wherein the second parental controllevel is a parental control setting at a media device. For example, themedia guidance application may access (e.g., via control circuitry 706),from the memory (e.g., storage 708), that the parental control level atthe media device (e.g., media device 110 or user television equipment802) is blocking all programming that is rated higher than “G.”

Process 900 continues to 926, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the age range correspondingto the user to an age associated with updating the parental controlsetting from the second parental control based on the first parentalcontrol instruction. For example, the media guidance application maycompare (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the age range of twelve tosixteen, which corresponds to the user, to an age associated withupdating the parental control setting from blocking all programming thatis rated higher than “G” to unblocking “PG-rated” content, which may beten years old.

Additional details regarding determining the age associated withdetermining an age associated with updating the parental control settingfrom the second parental control based on the first parental controlinstruction are provided above in relation to FIG. 4.

Process 900 continues to 928, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) whether the age rangecorresponding to the user exceeds the age associated with updating theparental control setting from the second parental control based on thefirst parental control instruction, which may be based on the abovecomparison, and which is described in more detail in relation to FIG. 4.If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) that the age range exceeds the age, process 900 continuesto 930, where the media guidance application updates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) the parental control setting at the media device (e.g.,user television equipment 802) from the second parental control level tothe first parental control level. For example, if the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the agerange of twelve to sixteen, which corresponds to the user, exceeds theage associated with updating the parental control setting from blockingall programming that is rated higher than “G” to unblocking “PG-rated”content, which may be ten, the media guidance application may update(e.g., via control circuitry 706) the parental control setting at themedia device (e.g., user television equipment 802) to blocking allprogramming that is rated higher than “PG-rated” and thus unblock“PG-rated” content. The media guidance application may make this updateby accessing a memory location indicating the parental control setting,substituting the new parental control setting, and restore a datastructure in the memory location.

If, at 928, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) that the age range does not exceed the age, process 900continues to 932, where the media guidance application maintains (e.g.,via control circuitry 706) the second parental control level at themedia device (e.g., user television equipment 802). For example, if themedia guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706)that the age range of the user is six to nine (e.g., at 922), the mediaguidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 706)that the age range exceeds the age associated with updating the parentalcontrol setting from blocking all programming that is rated higher than“G” to unblocking “PG-rated” content, which may be ten. In response, themedia guidance application may maintain (e.g., via control circuitry706) the parental control level at the media device (e.g., usertelevision equipment 802) at blocking all programming that is ratedhigher than “G-rated,” thus keeping PG-rated content blocked.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining an agerange of a user based on vocal characteristics of the user in an audioinput, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Forexample, a media guidance application may instruct control circuitry 706to execute the elements of process 1000.

Process 1000 begins at 1002, where the media guidance applicationprocesses (e.g., via control circuitry 706) an audio input (e.g., audioinput of utterance 114) from a user (e.g., user 102), using an audioinput analysis process, to determine a plurality of vocalcharacteristics. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayrun (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the audio input analysis process,which may be stored in memory (e.g., in storage 708) locally (e.g., atuser television equipment 802) to determine the plurality of vocalcharacteristics. In other embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay transmit (e.g., via control circuitry 706 over communicationsnetwork 814) the audio input to a server or other dedicated processor(e.g., media guidance data source 818) to determine the plurality ofvocal characteristics. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the audio input has aspeaking rate of 3.3 words per second, a mean fundamental frequency of330 Hertz, and an average word duration of 45 milliseconds.

Process 1000 continues to 1004, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 706) each of the plurality ofvoice characteristics of the user to a plurality of voicecharacteristics in a voice database (e.g., table 402) to determine aplurality of age ranges associated with the plurality of voicecharacteristics of the user and a plurality of weights associated withthe plurality of voice characteristics of the user. For example, themedia guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 706)the speaking rate of 3.3 words per second to a table in the voicedatabase (e.g., table 402) to determine that it is associated with anage range of three to twelve and a weight of 0.5, the mean fundamentalfrequency of 330 Hertz to the table to determine that it is associatedwith an age range of twelve to sixteen and a weight of 0.5, and theaverage word duration of 45 milliseconds to the table to determine thatit is associated with an age range of twelve to sixteen and with aweight of 0.9. This may be done in a similar manner to that describedabove in relation to FIG. 4.

Process 1000 continues to 1006, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) a sum by summing weightsassociated with voice characteristics of the plurality of voicecharacteristics of the user associated with an age range. For example,the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) that the sum associated with the age range of twelve tosixteen is the sum of the weight of 0.5 associated with the meanfundamental frequency of 330 Hertz and the weight of 0.9 associated withthe average word duration of 45 milliseconds, or 1.4.

Process 1000 continues to 1008, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) if there are additional ageranges. If the media guidance application determines that there areadditional age ranges, process 1000 continues to 1010, where the mediaguidance application chooses (e.g., via control circuitry 706) a new agerange of the plurality of age ranges. For example, if the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the agerange of three to twelve has not been analyzed, the media guidanceapplication may choose the age range of three to twelve at the next agerange to analyze. Process 1000 returns to 1006, where the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) a new sum forthe new chosen age range, which may be 0.5.

If, at 1008, the media guidance application determines that there are noadditional age ranges to analyze, process 1000 continues to 1012, wherethe media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry706) a greatest sum of the sums associated with the plurality of ageranges. For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 706) that the sum of 1.4 is the highest sum (whencompared to the sum of 0.5 for the age range three to twelve).

Process 1000 continues to 1014, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) whether the greatest sumand another sum of the plurality of sums exceed a threshold sum. Forexample, the media guidance application may access (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) the threshold sum (e.g., from storage 708 or from mediaguidance data source 818 over communications network 814), which may bea predetermined value (e.g., always 1.0). In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may calculate (e.g., via control circuitry 706) thethreshold sum using a formula (e.g., stored in storage 708 or at mediaguidance data source 818). For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the threshold sum is fifty percent of the greatestsum, or 0.7.

If, at 1014, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 706) that one or both of the greatest sum and anothersum of the plurality of sums do not exceed the threshold sum, process1000 continues to 1016, where the media guidance application determines(e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the age range is the age rangeassociated with the greatest sum. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that onlythe greatest sum of 1.4 is greater than the threshold sum (e.g., 1.0),and therefore determine that the age range for the user (e.g., user 102)is twelve to sixteen, which was associated with the sum of 1.4.

If, at 1014, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 706) that the greatest sum and another sum of theplurality of sums exceed the threshold sum, process 1000 continues to1018, where the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) that the age range is the null age range, as there may betoo much uncertainty as to the age of the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 706)that the greatest sum of 1.4 and another sum, e.g., the sum for the agerange of three to twelve, which may be 1.1, are both greater than thethreshold sum (e.g., 1.0), and therefore determine that the age rangefor the user (e.g., user 102) is the null age range.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for controlling permissionsto change parental control settings subsequent to an initial update, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a mediaguidance application may instruct control circuitry 706 to execute theelements of process 1100.

Process 1100 begins at 1102, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that an age range of auser, who utters a first parental control instruction of a first type,exceeds an age associated with updating a parental control setting at amedia device (e.g., media device 110 or user television equipment 802)from a second parental control level based on the first parental controlinstruction. For example, the media guidance application may determine(e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the age range of the user istwelve to sixteen in a similar manner as described above in relation to920 and 922 in FIG. 9. The media guidance application may determine(e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the age associated with updatingthe parental control setting at the media device (e.g., media device 110or user television equipment 802) from, for example, blocking allcontent rated higher than R-rated to blocking all content rated R-ratedor higher may be ten years old in a similar manner as described above inrelation to 926 and 928 in FIG. 9. The media guidance application maytherefore determine (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the age rangeof twelve to sixteen exceeds the age associated with the update.

Process 1100 continues to 1104, where the media guidance applicationupdates (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the parental control settingat the media device from the second parental control level to a firstparental control level included in the first parental controlinstruction. This may be done in a similar manner to that describedabove in relation to 930 in FIG. 9.

Process 1100 continues to 1106, where the media guidance applicationreceives (e.g., via control circuitry 706) an audio input of a pluralityof words. For example, the media guidance application may receive (e.g.,via control circuitry 706) from a voice-based input device (e.g., userinput interface 710 or voice-based input device 106 over communicationslink 108) an audio input of a user saying “Unblock R-rated movies.”

Process 1100 continues to 1108, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) a second parental controlinstruction associated with the plurality of words. This may be done ina similar manner to that described above in relation to 908, 914, and916 of FIG. 9. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the second parental control instruction is to “Unblock all R-ratedcontent.”

Process 1100 continues to 1110, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the second parentalcontrol instruction is of a first parental control type and comprises athird parental control level. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access (e.g., via control circuitry 706 from storage708) a data structure associated with the second parental controlinstruction to determine that the first parental control type is “MPAArating-based access” and that the third parental control level is“R-rated.”

Process 1100 continues to 1112, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the second parental controlinstruction to the first parental control instruction. For example, themedia guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 706)the data in the data field relating the parental control type of thefirst parental control instruction with the parental control instructionassociated with the second parental control instruction (e.g., “MPAArating-based access”).

Process 1100 continues to 1114, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) whether the first parentalcontrol instruction and the second parental control instruction are ofthe first parental control type. If the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the first parentalcontrol instruction is not of the first parental control type (e.g., itstype is “purchasing permissions,” “video game rating-based access,”“automatic television shut-off time,” etc.), process 1100 continues to1122, where process 1100 ends, and the second parental controlinstruction may be analyzed in a similar manner as described above inrelation to FIG. 9. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the second parentalcontrol instruction may be of the “MPAA rating-based access” parentalcontrol type, and that the first parental control instruction may be ofthe “purchasing permissions” type.

If, at 1114, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 706) that the first parental control instruction is ofthe first parental control type, process 1100 continues to 1116, wherethe media guidance application compares (e.g., via control circuitry706) an age range associated with the audio input of the secondplurality of words with the age range of the user that issued the firstparental control instruction. For example, the media guidanceapplication may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the age rangeof twelve to sixteen, which may be associated with the second parentalcontrol instruction, to the age range of twelve to sixteen, which may beassociated with the first parental control instruction, to determinethat they are the same age range.

Process 1100 continues to 1118, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) whether the age rangeassociated with the audio input of the second plurality of words is thesame or greater than the age range of the user. If the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 706) that the agerange associated with the audio input of the second plurality of wordsis less than the age range of the user, process 1100 continues to 1122,where process 1100 ends, and the second parental control instruction maybe analyzed in a similar manner as described above in relation to FIG.9.

If, at 118, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) that the age range associated with the audio input of thesecond plurality of words is the same or greater than the age range ofthe user, process 1100 continues to 1120, where the media guidanceapplication updates (e.g., via control circuitry 706) the parentalcontrol setting at the media device (e.g., media device 110 or usertelevision equipment 802) to the third parental control level. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 706) that the age range associated with the second pluralityof words is twelve to sixteen, and that the age range of the user whoissued the first parental control instruction is also twelve to sixteen,and in response, update the parental control setting from “blocking allR-rated (or higher)” content to blocking all content rated R-rated orhigher to blocking all content rated higher than R-rated. Note that,normally, making such an update may be associated with an age thatexceeds the age range of the second user (e.g., 18, which would exceedthe age range of twelve to sixteen of the user). However, because atwelve- to sixteen-year-old user originally blocked R-rated content,then the system will allow a twelve- to sixteen-year-old (or older) userto unblock R-rated content, even if he or she normally could not.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Additionally, itshould be noted that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 7-8 could be used to perform one or more of the stepsin processes 900-1100 in FIGS. 9-11, respectively. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, performedwith additional steps, performed with omitted steps, or done inparallel. For example, each of these steps may be performed in any orderor in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increasethe speed of the system or method. In addition, the systems and methodsdescribed herein may be performed in real time. It should also be notedthat the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to, orused in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method for determining whether to update parentalcontrol restrictions based on a voice of a user, the method comprising:receiving, from an input device, an audio input of an utterance of auser; processing the audio input to determine a plurality of words and aplurality of vocal characteristics of the user; comparing the pluralityof words to parental control instructions stored in a database;determining that the plurality of words corresponds to a first parentalcontrol instruction in the database, wherein the first parental controlinstruction comprises a first parental control level, wherein the firstparental control level represents a content restriction; determining anage range of the user based on the plurality of vocal characteristics ofthe user and a voice database that associates each of the vocalcharacteristics with a plurality of age ranges; retrieving, from memory,an age required to update a parental control setting at a media device;determining whether the age range of the user exceeds the age requiredto update the parental control setting at the media device; and inresponse to determining that the age range of the user exceeds the age,updating the parental control setting at the media device to the firstparental control level of the first parental control instruction. 53.The method of claim 52, wherein determining whether the age range of theuser exceeds the age required to update the parental control setting atthe media device further comprises: querying memory for a secondparental control level, wherein the second parental control level is theparental control setting at the media device; determining an ageassociated with updating the second parental control level; anddetermining whether the age range of the user exceeds the age associatedwith updating the second parental control level.
 54. The method of claim53, wherein updating the parental control setting at the media device tothe first parental control level of the first parental controlinstruction comprises: determining an age associated with the firstparental control level and an age associated with the second parentalcontrol level; determining whether the age associated with the firstparental control level exceeds the age associated with the secondparental control level; and in response to determining that the ageassociated with the first parental control level exceeds the ageassociated with the second parental control level, updating the parentalcontrol setting at the media device to the first parental control levelof the first parental control instruction.
 55. The method of claim 52,wherein each vocal characteristic of the plurality of vocalcharacteristics in the voice database is associated with a weight,wherein determining the age range of the user comprises: comparing eachof the plurality of vocal characteristics of the user to the pluralityof vocal characteristics in the voice database to determine a respectiveweight for each respective vocal characteristic of the user and anassociated respective age range; determining, for each associatedrespective age range, a sum of weights for the vocal characteristics inthe voice database; determining a greatest sum of the determined sums;and determining that the age range is an age range associated with thegreatest sum.
 56. The method of claim 55, wherein determining whetherthe age range of the user exceeds the age required to update theparental control setting at the media device further comprises:determining that at least two of the determined sums exceed a thresholdsum; based on determining that at least two of the determined sumsexceed the threshold sum, determining that the age range is a null agerange; in response to determining that the age range is the null agerange, determining that the age range of the user does not exceed theage required to update the parental control setting at the media device;and in response to determining that the age range of the user does notexceed the age required to update the parental control setting,maintaining the parental control setting at the media device.
 57. Themethod of claim 52, further comprising: receiving, from a parentalcontrol database, a table comprising entries associating parentalcontrol instructions with the plurality of age ranges; comparing asubset of the plurality of words to the database to determine a firstparental control update command, wherein the first parental controlinstruction further comprises the first parental control update command;and comparing the first parental control update command with the entriesof the table to determine an age range associated with both the firstparental control level and the first parental control update command, todetermine the age associated with the first parental controlinstruction.
 58. The method of claim 52, wherein creating the voicedatabase comprises: receiving a plurality of audio inputs associatedwith a plurality of indications of ages; processing the plurality ofaudio inputs to determine a plurality of sets of vocal characteristics;determining, for each age, an average signature associated with eachvocal characteristic of the plurality of sets of vocal characteristics.59. The method of claim 52, wherein the first parental controlinstruction is associated with a first parental control type, the methodfurther comprising: subsequent to determining that the age range of theuser exceeds the age required to update the parental control setting atthe media device, receiving an audio input of a second plurality ofwords; determining a second parental control instruction associated withthe second plurality of words, wherein the second parental controlinstruction is of the first parental control type, and wherein thesecond parental control instruction comprises a third parental controllevel; comparing the second parental control instruction to the firstparental control instruction to determine that the second parentalcontrol instruction and the first parental control instruction are bothof the first parental control type; comparing an age range associatedwith the audio input of the second plurality of words with the age rangeof the user to determine that the age range associated with the audioinput of the second plurality of words is the same or exceeds the agerange of the age range of the user; and based on determining that (1)the second parental control instruction and the first parental controlinstruction are both of the first parental control type and (2) the agerange associated with the audio input of the second plurality of wordsis the same or exceeds the age range of the age range of the user,updating the parental control setting at the media device from the firstparental control level to the third parental control level.
 60. Themethod of claim 52, further comprising: in response to determining thatthe age range of the user does not exceed the age required to update theparental control setting at the media device, maintaining the parentalcontrol level at the media device; notifying the user that the parentalcontrol setting will be maintained; receiving an audio input of a seconduser authorized to change the parental control setting to the firstparental control level on the media device; processing the audio inputof the second user to determine that the audio input of the second userincludes an instruction affirming the first parental controlinstruction; and in response to determining that the audio input of thesecond user includes the instruction affirming the first parentalcontrol instruction, updating the parental control setting at the mediadevice to the first parental control level.
 61. The method of claim 52,further comprising: notifying the user that the parental control settingat the media device will be updated to the first parental control level;receiving an audio input of a second user authorized to change theparental control setting to the first parental control level on themedia device; processing the audio input of the second user to determinethat the audio input of the second user includes an instruction negatingthe first parental control instruction; and in response to determiningthat the audio input of the second user includes the instructionnegating the first parental control instruction, reverting the parentalcontrol setting at the media device from the first parental controllevel.
 62. A system for determining whether to update parental controlrestrictions based on a voice of a user, the system comprising: controlcircuitry configured to: receive, from an input device, an audio inputof an utterance of a user; process the audio input to determine aplurality of words and a plurality of vocal characteristics of the user;compare the plurality of words to parental control instructions storedin a database; determine that the plurality of words corresponds to afirst parental control instruction in the database, wherein the firstparental control instruction comprises a first parental control level,wherein the first parental control level represents a contentrestriction; determine an age range of the user based on the pluralityof vocal characteristics of the user and a voice database thatassociates each of the vocal characteristics with a plurality of ageranges; retrieve, from memory, an age required to update a parentalcontrol setting at a media device; determine whether the age range ofthe user exceeds the age required to update the parental control settingat the media device; and in response to determining that the age rangeof the user exceeds the age, update the parental control setting at themedia device to the first parental control level of the first parentalcontrol instruction.
 63. The system of claim 62, wherein the controlcircuitry, when determining whether the age range of the user exceedsthe age required to update the parental control setting at the mediadevice, is further configured to: query memory for a second parentalcontrol level, wherein the second parental control level is the parentalcontrol setting at the media device; determine an age associated withupdating the second parental control level; and determine whether theage range of the user exceeds the age associated with updating thesecond parental control level.
 64. The system of claim 63, wherein thecontrol circuitry, when updating the parental control setting at themedia device to the first parental control level of the first parentalcontrol instruction, is further configured to: determine an ageassociated with the first parental control level and an age associatedwith the second parental control level; determine whether the ageassociated with the first parental control level exceeds the ageassociated with the second parental control level; and in response todetermining that the age associated with the first parental controllevel exceeds the age associated with the second parental control level,update the parental control setting at the media device to the firstparental control level of the first parental control instruction. 65.The system of claim 62, wherein each vocal characteristic of theplurality of vocal characteristics in the voice database is associatedwith a weight, wherein the control circuitry, when determining the agerange of the user, is further configured to: compare each of theplurality of vocal characteristics of the user to the plurality of vocalcharacteristics in the voice database to determine a respective weightfor each respective vocal characteristic of the user and an associatedrespective age range; determine, for each associated respective agerange, a sum of weights for the vocal characteristics in the voicedatabase; determine a greatest sum of the determined sums; and determinethat the age range is an age range associated with the greatest sum. 66.The system of claim 65, wherein the control circuitry, when determiningwhether the age range of the user exceeds the age required to update theparental control setting at the media device, is further configured to:determine that at least two of the determined sums exceed a thresholdsum; based on determining that at least two of the determined sumsexceed the threshold sum, determine that the age range is a null agerange; in response to determining that the age range is the null agerange, determine that the age range of the user does not exceed the agerequired to update the parental control setting at the media device; andin response to determining that the age range of the user does notexceed the age required to update the parental control setting, maintainthe parental control setting at the media device.
 67. The system ofclaim 62, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:receive, from a parental control database, a table comprising entriesassociating parental control instructions with the plurality of ageranges; compare a subset of the plurality of words to the database todetermine a first parental control update command, wherein the firstparental control instruction further comprises the first parentalcontrol update command; and compare the first parental control updatecommand with the entries of the table to determine an age rangeassociated with both the first parental control level and the firstparental control update command, to determine the age associated withthe first parental control instruction.
 68. The system of claim 62,wherein the control circuitry, when creating the voice database isfurther configured to: receive a plurality of audio inputs associatedwith a plurality of indications of ages; process the plurality of audioinputs to determine a plurality of sets of vocal characteristics;determine, for each age, an average signature associated with each vocalcharacteristic of the plurality of sets of vocal characteristics. 69.The system of claim 62, wherein the first parental control instructionis associated with a first parental control type, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to: subsequent to determining that theage range of the user exceeds the age required to update the parentalcontrol setting at the media device, receive an audio input of a secondplurality of words; determine a second parental control instructionassociated with the second plurality of words, wherein the secondparental control instruction is of the first parental control type, andwherein the second parental control instruction comprises a thirdparental control level; compare the second parental control instructionto the first parental control instruction to determine that the secondparental control instruction and the first parental control instructionare both of the first parental control type; compare an age rangeassociated with the audio input of the second plurality of words withthe age range of the user to determine that the age range associatedwith the audio input of the second plurality of words is the same orexceeds the age range of the age range of the user; and based ondetermining that (1) the second parental control instruction and thefirst parental control instruction are both of the first parentalcontrol type and (2) the age range associated with the audio input ofthe second plurality of words is the same or exceeds the age range ofthe age range of the user, update the parental control setting at themedia device from the first parental control level to the third parentalcontrol level.
 70. The system of claim 62, wherein the control circuitryis further configured to: in response to determining that the age rangeof the user does not exceed the age required to update the parentalcontrol setting at the media device, maintain the parental control levelat the media device; notify the user that the parental control settingwill be maintained; receive an audio input of a second user authorizedto change the parental control setting to the first parental controllevel on the media device; process the audio input of the second user todetermine that the audio input of the second user includes aninstruction affirming the first parental control instruction; and inresponse to determining that the audio input of the second user includesthe instruction affirming the first parental control instruction, updatethe parental control setting at the media device to the first parentalcontrol level.
 71. The system of claim 62, wherein the control circuitryis further configured to: notify the user that the parental controlsetting at the media device will be updated to the first parentalcontrol level; receive an audio input of a second user authorized tochange the parental control setting to the first parental control levelon the media device; process the audio input of the second user todetermine that the audio input of the second user includes aninstruction negating the first parental control instruction; and inresponse to determining that the audio input of the second user includesthe instruction negating the first parental control instruction, revertthe parental control setting at the media device from the first parentalcontrol level.